Meet York

York is a miniature schnauzer. He belongs to my friend, Molly. Molly has gone back to the states for 6 months, so I get to keep York for that time. He is a very well behaved dog. He loves to play fetch, he loves to sleep on my pillow at the same time that I am trying to sleep on my pillow. He likes to lay on the bed and watch TV too. Overall he is a very good dog and I am excited to have him around for the next 6 months. I am sure I am going to miss him dearly when my friend comes back and takes him away from me (it is her dog and all, but still.) When I was taking these pictures, I just called his name and he looked, saw the camera, and posed nicely. He is a ham!!

Meet Uncle Jerry

Uncle Jerry is a jungle turtle. Now I know some of you are thinking, then why is he in a closed space being fed by people? Well, I can not answer that question, I was not the one who took him from the jungle and placed him in an enclosed space, but now that he has been that way for years, I have gladly volunteered to be his newest caretaker. He is named after one of our former missionaries who just left. I am not planning on changing his name in honor of Jerry Koleski who we will all miss.
Today was my first day to care for him. I fed him a banana and he loved it. I think we will get along great. Many of you know how much I love turtles and lizards, so you know how excited I am about my new friend.

Thats a big pig

This weekend I went with a couple friends to Banos. We were doing some shopping and we saw this pig in a restaurant. Of course we had to stop to take some pictures. Be sure you don't miss the best part, the bowl under it to catch all the blood that was dripping out.
The guy was skinning it as we walked up. They take the skin and a thin layer of the fat and they grill or fry it (kind of like pork rinds, but not crunchy). Talk about calories.

After this adventure, we went to the hot springs. Banos is well known for it's hot spring pools. We were given strict instruction from friends. DO NOT go before 6 pm, during the day, there are a ton of people and sometimes, diapers or poop floating. At 5 pm they close the pools and clean them, refill them and reopen at 6 pm. Therefore, DO NOT go before 6 pm. These pools are more like large hot tubs. I was never very intrigued by the thought, but my friends wanted to go, so I thought, one time, I should do it. So we went around 7 pm. When they said there were fewer people in the evening, I believed them. Well, just picture it, the pool is about 20 ft X 15 ft, we counted, there were 75 people in there. It was basically a crowded, public hot tub. I did not want to get in, but I did it so I can check it off my list. So, we are entering, of course, we are the only white people there so everyone is staring at us. The best part, the water is this brownish/green color, you can not see your legs under the water, not even one inch under the water. It was really gross. We didn't stay long, but we had paid $2 a piece, so my friends wanted to at least get our money's worth. I can say that I do plan to go back some day. I will pay the $2 to get in just to take pictures (I didn't take my camera this time because we were all getting in the water and there was no one to watch it). I have no plans of ever getting back in that water. But the pictures will be priceless!!

Steve Szoke (June 1, 1975 - May 27, 2008)

What do I think about when I think about Steve? Elementary school and Junior high, when my sister and I would go over to the Szokes' house, Cindy and Sarah would be upstairs playing dolls or house, and Steve and I would be downstairs playing GI Joe or wresting figures, somehow Steve always won. High school, my sister and I would go over to the Szokes' house, Cindy and Sarah would be inside baking or playing with make-up, Steve and I would be outside, with other friends, wrestling or in the house playing Super Mario World, somehow, Steve always won, but he sure did teach me how to hold my own (thanks Steve!).

In 2007, Steve was lead pastor in the launch of Impact Christian Church. The vision for this church was to be church that was open to everyone, a place where anyone could feel welcome. Steve rented an old warehouse, advertised at his wrestling events, and formed a core group of people to be Impact Christian Church. Every Sunday Steve would preach in jeans, no one had to feel like they were not good enough for this church, everyone was welcome. Impact Christian Church holds a special place in my heart because several of my friends who were not attending church previously now attend regularly and love it. Thanks Steve!

Steve touched many people in his short 32 years, this was demonstrated by the very long line at his wake. The hundreds of people whose lives Steve was somehow involved in. I am grateful to have been one of those. I hope that I can tell God's story to even a fraction of the people that Steve did, and show them that they don't have to be a certain way or have a certain job, or wear certain clothes before God will love them. God loves you just the way you are!!

Photo: Steve, Candy, and Jada Szoke October 2007

A trip to the park

I started going to the local orphanage (run by a fellow missionary) about a month ago. I am working with the girls between the ages of 6 and 11. I am teaching them how to do hand puppets. A friend of mine is donating 5 puppets, I should have them in the next couple weeks. When I have good pictures of that, I will post again and give more details.

On Saturday, I took these girls, 11 in all, (I had help, don't worry) to the park. We had a good time. They all have different stories about how and why they came to the orphanage. Some of them are not soo easy to love and others are as sweet as sweet can be. After some time in the park, we went for ice cream.

The orphanage is run by a missionary who started when she lived in Quito. She took in 2 foster children with disabilities, she moved herself and these 2 children, after some time, to Shell and opened up her home to other children that needed her as well. She now has 47 children, some with disabilities, some without. She has about 30 Ecuadorian women workers. She has another missionary couple working with her to build a new orphanage with houses and common areas. The description of the new place reminded me of church camp with cabins, recreation areas, eating area, self contained. It is going to be awesome. Before this orphanage existed, disabled children were just left to die, sometimes their families would feed them but they would get no other stimulation, sometimes they would literally be thrown in the river, or left somewhere for someone else to find. Now there is a place in Shell for these handicapped children to live and receive the care and stimulation they need.

2nd Tarantula sighting

Ok, so I never told you about the first tarantula sighting. That is because I didn't have a picture. Well, the first one was about 3 weeks ago, it was on the steps of the guest house. We were having an Easter service that night at the guest house so there were several of us there. As we were getting ready to leave, there he was, in the middle of the first step so you had to go past him to get out. By Ecuadorian standards, he was not very big, maybe 4 inches in diameter. Several people wanted photos, so we (really them, because I was just watching from afar) were bothering him. So he moved, kept trying to walk away but they kept following him. He was walking on the railing (really a short concrete wall) that had shoes lined up on it. We thought for sure he would end up in someone's shoe, so one of the ladies decided to move the shoes. As she picked up the first shoe, he jumped onto the shoe then onto her hand, she screamed, jumped, and dropped the shoe. He fell over the railing onto the ground below and walked into the trees. It was quite scary for me to be that close to one that was moving. I only freaked out a little when I felt he was getting to close to me and I couldn't move because there were people all around me. I ended up pushing someone out of my way because I asked several times for them to move so I could get away and they wouldn't.

Well, last night I was on call and I got called in at 1 am. I was coming home from the hospital around 1:30 am and I saw this tarantula (in the photo) on the side of my house. He was even smaller than the first one, about 3 inches in diameter (that is a standard 16 inch cinder block), really just a baby. I came in the house and got my camera and was taking pictures at 1:30 am. I was afraid, since it was dark and I was making a bright flash, that I was going to scare him and he was going to jump on me, that is why the picture is kind of far away. I wasn't getting too close. Anyway, I got called in again at 3:30 am and he was still in the exact same position. When I went in again at 7 am, he was gone.

I always knew there were tarantulas around our houses, but now I have seen the proof. I had a couple holes in my screens that I have been meaning to patch (with duct tape of course) since I moved in. You can bet that I already patched them this morning.

Mitad del Mundo

I just had a 4 day weekend and decided to explore a little of Ecuador, that I had not seen yet, with my friend DeNise.

Mitad Del Mundo (middle of the world). This is just outside of Quito on the Ecuator. There is a monument with a museum inside telling about all the different Indian groups in Ecuador. There are lots of shops and restaurants in the area. You can go up in the monument and look out from the top, it is not that high really, maybe 7 stories. It was fun and informative.

Museo de Inti-Nan (this is an Indian word), is around the corner from the monument at Mitad del Mundo. This is the real location of the ecuator. This was a really cool museum, they tell about the traditions of Ecuador too, but also have demonstrations to prove you are on the ecuator. There was a sun dial that had a north side and a south side. The shadow appears on each side for 6 months at a time. And it was true, the shadow was only on one side. Then there was a water demonstration. In a sink with a drain, on the ecuator, the water did not swirl, it went straight down the drain. In the northern hemisphere, it swirled counter clockwise and in the southern hemisphere it swirled clockwise. If you look at your sinks when water drains, it will follow this pattern too depending on which hemisphere you live in. Then we balanced an egg (a raw egg) on a nail, right on the ecuator line. You can do this because the force of gravity is straight down. Then with a partner, one person put their arms up in the air and the other tried to pull them down. In the northern or southern hemispheres, I could not pull my partners arms down. On the ecuator, I could, again, because the force of gravity is straight down and helping you. The last thing we did was walk a straight line, heel to toe (like the sobriety test) with our eyes closed, on the ecuator. This is very difficult because the forces of both hemispheres are pulling you in opposite directions. The museum was very cool to see that there really are differences in the forces in each hemisphere and on the ecuator line. The photo above and to the right is me in the northern hemisphere and DeNise in the southern hemisphere. The red line represents the ecuator. The photo to the left is me with the RAW egg that I balanced on a nail.

Then we went to Mindo. This is a small town about 70 kilometers outside of Quito. It is at about 3500 feet elevation. We went to a couple butterfly farms, an orchid farm (because there are more than 2000 varieties of orchids that grow in Ecuador.), and a hummingbird sanctuary. Those were cool places. We also went hiking in a forest that had 7 different waterfalls. We had to take a Tabitha across the valley to get there. It was 530 kilometers long and about 300 meters (thats about 900 feet) above the ground. I didn´t like that part very much. But the hike and the waterfalls were absolutely beautiful.

Overall we had a really good time. It was a much needed rest from work and a relaxing time. The place we stayed at was like a little log cabin in the woods. It was next to a rushing river, we had hammocks on the patio overlooking the river. It was very nice.